Easley Blackwood's Cello Sonata dates from 1985, and is one of five works written during the past decade in which the composer explores earlier idioms with considerable practical expertise. As a committed practitioner of the avant-garde, Blackwood's atonal works attracted interest amongst musicologists long before such techniques became more generally known. However, to judge from this tuneful and adroit Cello Sonata his career seems to have traversed vast stylistic horizons. It is a large-scale work, cast in an early romantic vein whose melodic content and structural cohesion reveal an obvious, though studied aspiration in the general direction of Schubert or Brahms. Blackwood is apparently aiming at the style which he believes Schubert may have adopted, had he survived until 1845. But there are clearly defined gestures toward the Brahms E minor Sonata here; whilst Beethoven's Sonatas, Op. 5 Nos. 1 and 2 and Op. 102 No. 1, seem to have been the models for the extended slow introduction which opens the work.
The competence and sincerity of Blackwood's ideas is self-evident; the contrapuntal episodes are skilfully managed, and the traditional requirements of the form are honoured. But it all sounds excessively earnest and dryly academic. The performance itself features the fine American cellist Kim Scholes, and whatever the limitations of the music, the sound of his 1732 Montagnana cello is a joy in itself. He is accompanied by Blackwood who proves to be thoroughly accomplished throughout this occasionally cumbersome composition, lasting over 40 minutes.
The Frank Bridge Sonata sits uncomfortably alongside the Blackwood work, and the playing here occasionally displays weaknesses. Scholes himself seems less than happy with the material, and frequently his intentions are vague and misaligned, although his playing does suddenly take flight in the closing pages of the piece. There are some ensemble difficulties in the opening Allegro, where Blackwood's accompaniment sounds occasionally pressured, and in need of considerable refinement. The recording was made in the studios of WFMT, Chicago and is perfectly serviceable, although any collector seeking a version of the Bridge Sonata should definitely consider Bernard Gregor-Smith and Yolande Wrigley on ASV.'